In the ‘holy year’ of 1725, the most famous flautist of his time, J. J. Quantz, visited Naples. He inspired a host of sonatas and concertos by the great Alessandro Scarlatti and his most talented successors. Now Maurice Steger brings these treasures back to life, drawing on a Neapolitan collection dating from 1725. He has assembled the leading specialists in the genre and the result is dazzling, poetic, in a word, masterly.

Maurice Steger has succeeded in establishing himself as one of the most popular soloists in the early music field. His lively manner and his personal, spontaneous and technically brilliant style of playing have helped to revive the recorder as an instrument and give it an entirely new place in the musical world. He has been acclaimed as "the Roger Federer of the recorder” by IRR

“a captivating, bracing and powerfully muscular performance…Steger’s thoughtful and adroit recorder playing is delightfully enticing…exquisitely cultivated and fastidiously controlled…a superbly played and recorded issue” International Record Review, November 2012

“Much of the success of the pieces has to do with the instrumentation, though how much of that came from the manuscripts or Steger's imagination is hard to say...As for Steger's own playing, he has rare solidity and precision, plus almost any shade of colour that he can imagine.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“Maurice Steger always produces exciting recordings, and his brilliant but lyrical playing is well matched by a small one-to-a-part ensemble … beautifully performed and recorded.” Early Music Review, December 2012

“harmonia mundi’s recorded sound is first rate, and the colour palatte of the continuo team – psaltery and all – is wonderfully wide. Steger’s recorder playing is fresh and alluring, clear and soft-edged by turns” Classical Music, March 2013

“a nice recording” MusicWeb International, March 2013

“Naturally, Harmonia Mundi’s recorded sound is first rate, and the colour palette of the continuo team – psaltery and all – is wonderfully wide. Steger’s recorder playing is fresh and alluring, clear and soft-edged by turns, and only occasionally too fast for harmonic comprehension.” Early Music Today ****